After a reasonable 26h transit through Hong Kong, we reached Sydney on the early morning of Tuesday, August 16. At the airport we decided to be super honest, and declared that we had some nuts in one of the bags. Thus we had to stand in the long line for customs declaration. A friendly Sikh family with numerous baggage trolleys took advantage of a moment of indecision, and pushed between and around me and Lilach, proceeding to urge us forward by periodically bumping their trolleys into our heels. Perhaps out of pity, the customs officer directed us toward the exit without examining our bags…
After signing the rental car contract and getting a cup of (very reasonable) coffee, we noticed that we were one girl short. Tamar was promptly located, absorbed in thoughts, on a nearby bench, and our little party headed to the car park and out to the city, trying to remember to stick to the left side of the road. We dropped the luggage at our North Bondi airbnb apartment, and headed straight to the Royal Botanical Gardens.
We all delighted in the beautiful trees, the noisy parrots and the other birds, and Daniel had a first chance to try out his photographic skills capturing many images of the abundant and beautiful Australian White Ibises (the picture featured here, though, was taken by Lilach while we were eating lunch at the cafe near the garden store). Tamar, as a practicing vampire, was especially delighted to find a couple of Flying Foxes – the aptly named large fruit bats – at the canopy of one of the trees.
Lilach bravely visited the NSW University in the afternoon, following which we returned to the apartment and gradually collapsed, overwhelmed by jet-lag.
The kids woke up shortly after midnight, and we followed suit a little later. After a king size breakfast sourced from the local grocery store, we brought Lilach to the university and headed to Centennial Park. The kids enjoyed playing by a big natural pool, climbing trees, chasing the parrots, doves and waterfowl and collecting cockatoo feathers. I enjoyed watching them.
Family Trips 